


Azirascale and Crawly

by AppleSeeds



Series: Noah's Ark Zoo [2]
Category: Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: First Kiss, Flirting, M/M, Shy Aziraphale (Good Omens), Snakes, Zookeeper Crowley
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-17
Updated: 2020-12-17
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:21:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,356
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28117617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AppleSeeds/pseuds/AppleSeeds
Summary: Follow-up to All Creatures Great and SmallCrowley and Aziraphale start spending more time together, and Crowley confides in his two favourite snakes, Azirascale and Crawly, about the object of his affections. Eventually Crowley realises the only way to get Aziraphale to relax might be to find somewhere in the zoo where they can be completely alone.
Relationships: Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens)
Series: Noah's Ark Zoo [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2059875
Comments: 21
Kudos: 131





	Azirascale and Crawly

**Author's Note:**

> I was "strongly encouraged" to write a follow-up to All Creatures Great and Small from Crowley's POV, so here it is! KissMyAsthma, this is for you - with Crowley talking to his snakes about Aziraphale, as requested. ;-)

** Tuesday **

“Hello, my lovely.” Crowley reached into Azirascale’s enclosure and ran his hand along his coils as the corn snake basked in the heat under the lamp. “What did you think of your namesake earlier? Adorable, right? D’you think he likes me?” Azirascale flicked his tongue out in response. “I think he does too. He said yes to lunch with me, didn’t he? Still don’t think he’s realised about the rotas though. What d’you say, shall I tell him, or do you think that might scare him off? He’ll be back in a moment, so I’m just going to take this mouse back out that I gave you earlier and then when he comes in I’ll give it you back, so he’ll think I’m here feeding you and not just hanging around waiting for him. I don’t think he’s noticed that I stay in the animal kitchens after I’ve prepared the food so I can listen to his talks, either. I hope I wasn’t too forward earlier, can’t believe I actually asked if I could wrap myself around him… he _did_ say yes though! And I think we can both agree that the subtle approach wasn’t working, can’t we sweetness? Yes that’s right, we can. Right, I’m taking your mouse. Don’t hate me.”

Crowley extracted the mouse from the front of the enclosure and then closed and locked the glass door, placing the mouse on a metal tray. Azirascale didn’t seem bothered, he clearly wasn’t very hungry yet. Crowley glanced at his watch. It was 17:06, Aziraphale should be here any min---

Crowley heard the sound of a key being turned in the door to the backroom, and he quickly shoved his own key to Azirascale’s enclosure back into the lock just as Aziraphale walked back in, pushing the door open with his hip, his hands occupied carrying the container holding Crawly.

“Hey,” Crowley smiled.

“Oh. Hello, Crowley. I didn’t realise you’d still be here.”

“Just finishing up.” Crowley slid open the door and reached into the enclosure, placing the mouse back where it had been a minute ago. He exchanged a conspiratorial glance with Azirascale and then locked up, clipping his keys back onto his belt loop and stepping over to Aziraphale, who was still standing motionless just in front of the door, holding onto the container so firmly that his knuckles had turned white. Crowley bent down to peer through the side of the box. “Hello you handsome thing, I hope you had fun! And hello Crawly.” Crowley peered up at Aziraphale through his eyelashes and winked, and Aziraphale visibly swallowed.

_Oh my Gooooood how can someone actually be this cute?_

“Want me to put him back for you?”

“Oh, yes, thank you.”

Crowley smiled and took the container from Aziraphale, setting it down on the workbench. He took off the lid and Crawly immediately came slithering out, taking his usual route up along Crowley’s arm and settling around his shoulders, absorbing his warmth.

“How did it go?”

“Very well, thank you. He was very popular with the visitors; we had quite a big crowd.”

“You sure they were there for Crawly? They might have just wanted to come and see _you_.” _Ok, might want to back off a bit_ , Crowley chided himself. It was as though the floodgates had opened and Crowley could no longer control himself. Not that he thought he’d been that good at controlling himself before. He was never particularly subtle with the way he looked at Aziraphale, and couldn’t help but smile stupidly at him every time they encountered each other. Every time Crowley had had the good fortune to touch Aziraphale (which always involved some kind of _mis_ fortune on Aziraphale’s part), Crowley hadn’t been able to resist letting his fingertips linger on Aziraphale’s soft, warm skin for longer than technically necessary. Although Aziraphale had seemed receptive earlier, he was evidently nervous, and Crowley decided to back-peddle a bit. “I mean, after listening to your talks all day, I’m sure they had lots of questions for you.”

“Quite a few, yes.”

Crawly slithered over Crowley’s face, flicking his tongue out and touching him on the nose, which Crowley scrunched up affectionately in response.

“Aww, thank you, sweetness, giving me a kiss. Did you have a good time with Aziraphale? Yeah, I bet you did. Did you behave yourself?”

“He did, for the most part, and I think I got the hang of handling him. Thank you for your help earlier.”

“Don’t mention it, it was my pleasure.” Crowley placed one hand on Crawly to hold the snake securely against him while he unclipped his keys and unlocked his enclosure. Once the door was open, Crawly slithered back in of his own volition, finding a nice tasty mouse had been left there for him too, which he ignored in favour of curling up under the heat lamp. His body temperature would have dropped a little on the short walk over from the close encounter area. “There you go, all settled. You’ll be toasty warm again in no time.”

“Well, I’d best be going. Goodbye, Crowley.”

“I’ll see you for lunch tomorrow, right? One o’clock by the wildfowl lake?”

“Yes, I’m looking forward to it. Thank you. See you then,” Aziraphale said hurriedly, heading back towards the door. _So adorable._

“Bye, Aziraphale.”

Crowley watched Aziraphale leave, letting his eyes drift down his body, turning back to Crawly once the door to the backroom closed behind him.

“Go on then, tell me everything! Were his hands as soft as they look? Yeah? I bet you slithered all over him, didn’t you? I don’t blame you. Well, _I’ve_ seen him with his shirt off _and_ I get to have lunch with him tomorrow, so there.” Crawly lifted his head and flicked his tongue out in Crowley’s direction. “Yes, all right, don’t nag me, I’ll tell him what I did with the rotas. Right, I’ll see you in the morning. Keep an eye on Hastur, I think he’s up to no good, and Newt for that matter, he’s been looking a bit shifty. Right, sweet dreams my lovelies, see you tomorrow!”

Crowley shrugged on his jacket, flicked off the lights and locked up the reptile and amphibian house for the day.

** Wednesday **

“How was it, Azirascale? Well, I’m glad you asked. It was _brilliant_. We fed the ducks and watched them swimming around for a bit. I told him about how I’d been spying on his team’s rotas before putting my name down on ours and he actually thought it was very sweet. At least I think he did, he didn’t really say very much. I think he’s just a bit shy, though, don’t you? Yes, you do, don’t you? He said he had a good time, and I told him he was free to join me for lunch any time he wanted, so hopefully he will. I’m prepping the feed for his talks on Friday too so at least I’ll get to see him again then if not before. I hope nothing bad happens to him, he seems to have really bad luck when he’s doing the talks. At first I thought maybe he was getting himself into trouble so he’d have an excuse to talk to me. I know, I know, but a man can dream, can’t he? Right, I’d better go check on the others. Talk to you later, sweetheart.”

Crowley began his tour of the animals in the reptile and amphibian house, checking their enclosures and performing some basic health checks. Everyone was well and everything was in order, except that somehow the water filter in Newt the newt’s tank had broken again, but this was enough of a regular occurrence just to be part of Crowley’s normal routine. He fiddled about with it to get it working again and then went to fetch his water quality testing kit.

** Friday **

“Excuse me…” Crowley watched from a distance as a visitor approached Aziraphale at the end of the giant tortoise talk with a young boy holding her hand. “That was a very interesting talk, thank you so much. I just wanted to ask you… my son is blind, and we were wondering if he would be able to just very quickly touch one of the tortoises on the shell to know what they feel like?”

Aziraphale turned around and looked at Crowley, who smiled and approached to stand beside him.

“Hello there, my name's Crowley, I work with Aziraphale and I look after all the reptiles here. I can take you inside their house to meet the giant tortoises if you like.”

The boy clenched his hands into fists and began waving them around excitedly, and his mother smiled gratefully. “Oh, thank you so much!”

“S’no problem, come on, the door’s just round the back here.”

Crowley showed them the way, and soon the three of them were inside the large shed in which the tortoises slept. One of them was inside, chewing on a piece of a lettuce.

“There’s one of them in here with us. She’s called Finch.” The boy scrunched his face up. “I know, it’s a silly name for a tortoise, I’m not very good at names. Can you hear her chewing her lettuce?” They all stood quietly for a moment, and the boy smiled and nodded. “Right, just crouch down here then and I’ll take your hand and you can stroke her on the shell. You ready?”

They both crouched down on the ground and the boy nodded. Crowley gently took his hand and guided him to Finch’s shell, and the boy’s face broke out into an excited grin. Crowley glanced up, and he could see Aziraphale smiling at him through the window, inducing a familiar fluttering in his chest that he had come to expect whenever he was able to spend time with Aziraphale. Crowley winked at him through the glass, and Aziraphale turned away and crossed his arms across his body in response. Hopefully that wasn’t a bad sign.

Crowley let the child stroke the tortoise for a little while and then guided him back out through the door and locked up behind them.

“What did you think?”

“That was _awesome_!” he beamed, and his mother held him close to her from behind, squeezing his shoulders. “Thank you!”

“Thank you so much, I really appreciate it!” the child’s mother echoed.

“My pleasure. Aziraphale’s doing the talks all day, I’m sure you’ll enjoy them, he knows so many interesting things about the animals. If you go and see him after the rainforest talk, he can come and find me, there’s a monkey who actually loves monkey nuts I’d like to introduce you to. Does that sound good?”

“That sounds brilliant, doesn’t it, sweetheart?”

“Ohhh a monkey! Wow! I get to a meet a _monkey_!”

“Right, well, come find Aziraphale later and I’ll sort it out for you. Have a good day.”

“Thank you!”

“Yes, thank you,” the woman smiled.

Crowley smiled at the boy’s mother and watched them walk away, chatting excitedly to each other. He could feel Aziraphale’s presence as he sidled up to him, Crowley's heart beating faster in response to his proximity.

“That was very kind of you.”

“Nah, not really,” Crowley shrugged it off, although he knew the smile on his face was betraying his true feelings. “Maybe I’m just trying to impress you.”

“Nonsense, you’re always good with children.”

“Maybe I’ve just been trying to impress you for a really long time.” Aziraphale blushed and dipped his head, and Crowley experienced a prickle of apprehension. “Sorry, is that not ok?”

“It’s just hard for me to believe.”

Crowley hoped that meant it was something that Aziraphale _wanted_ to believe, so opted to give him more evidence to support it.

“You’ve done talks with other keepers prepping the food, right? Were any of them still in the kitchen when you went to take the tubs and buckets back after your talk?”

Aziraphale squinted and the lines across his forehead deepened as he seemed to consider this for a moment. “No, I don’t recall that.”

“Exactly. We don’t have to stay; once the food’s ready our job’s done. I just like listening to your talks, doesn’t matter how many times I’ve heard them. You have a really nice voice and you always make everything so interesting. Then I get to see you again afterwards too.”

“Crowley…”

“Sorry, didn’t mean to make you feel weird about it.”

“No… you haven’t. I don’t really know what to say. Thank you, Crowley.”

“For what?”

“For saying such kind things, and for… well, for giving me those extra opportunities to see you.”

The intensity of the colour in Aziraphale’s cheeks deepened and he began walking in the direction of the wallabies to get ready for his next talk. Crowley did a discreet little fist pump before rushing to catch up and falling into step beside him.

“Yes, I had an _excellent_ day, Crawly, how about you?” Crowley asked the snake as he cleaned out his enclosure. “Ohhh did he, now? Thanks for telling me. Shifty bugger that Hastur, isn’t he? Have you worked out how Newt keeps breaking his water filter yet? No? Well, you just keep an eye on him for me, ok? Aziraphale? Yeah, he was great. I told him about how I’ve been hanging around to listen to his talks. He seemed a bit uncomfortable at first but then he thanked me and he said he liked that he got to see me more, so he definitely likes me. I was worried I’d put him on the spot a bit the other day… I could feel you trying to roll your eyes at me, by the way, you cheeky serpent. I think maybe I’m going too fast for him. It’s hard though, he’s just so _cute_ , especially when he gets all flustered! What do you think I can do to help him relax? Do you think he feels uncomfortable because we’re at work and there are other people around? Maybe he’s concerned about someone walking in and seeing us _fraternising_. He’s always so professional, isn’t he? Well, maybe I just need to get him away from other people then, eh?”

Crawly slithered over Crowley’s arm, otherwise ignoring him completely, and settled himself on the opposite side of the enclosure. Crowley took that to mean ‘yes’. He would have to wait for the right moment though, he didn’t want to scare Aziraphale away.

** Thursday **

Crowley had been true to his word and had considerably toned down his flirting. He’d met Aziraphale for lunch a few times, twice at the wildfowl pond and once at the petting zoo, where he’d asked whether Aziraphale might teach him his rabbit-out-of-a-hat trick sometime. Aziraphale had immediately blurted out how the trick was done, which actually involved more skill than Crowley had anticipated, and Crowley had been unable to resist leaning in close and whispering, “Is it going to be this easy to get you to give up all your secrets?” near his ear. Aziraphale had blushed and chuckled breathlessly but had gone a little bit quiet after, and Crowley had needed to remind himself that he was supposed to be backing off a bit.

They were now in the tiny kitchen beneath the otter enclosure, and Crowley opened the fridge to get out the box of eggs and the bucket of fish before rummaging around under the worktop for a clean container to put them in for Aziraphale.

“Oh, for heaven’s sake!” Aziraphale muttered under his breath. Crowley immediately straightened up and twisted around to look at him.

“What? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. It’s nothing, I’m sorry.”

Crowley put down the container next to the fish, narrowing his eyes and stepping closer to Aziraphale. Even under the poor illumination in the otter kitchen, Crowley could see that Aziraphale was, once again, blushing.

“Aziraphale, what is it?”

“It’s just…” Aziraphale began, his face contorted with displeasure. He actually looked _annoyed_ , and Crowley’s heart sank. “You’re always… you know… _bending over_ to pick things up. Why don’t you keepers just put things on surfaces? Look at all this space!”

“We need the space to prepare food and stuff.”

“Right… yes, of course. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry. So… you don’t like that I keep bending over…?” Crowley tilted his head and raised an eyebrow.

“I didn’t say that.”

“So you _do_ like it!”

“It’s… _distracting_.”

Crowley smiled and stroked his chin with the back of his hand, studying Aziraphale, who squirmed a little in response.

“In a good way?” Crowley asked, his voice quiet and hopeful, his eyes still fixed on Aziraphale’s. Aziraphale licked his lips and Crowley shivered, his heart racing.

“In a good way,” Aziraphale whispered, barely audible over the excited shrieks of the otters from above them, who had learned long ago the cues to recognise that indicated that food was on its way. “You look very nice.”

Crowley’s lips parted involuntarily, and he was suddenly finding it a little bit harder to breathe.

“Wow… thank you,” he whispered, stepping close to Aziraphale, leaving only a couple of inches between them and running his fingertips lightly down the length of Aziraphale’s arm. Aziraphale fixed him with a heated stare, breathing heavily, twisting his hands together in front of his stomach. Crowley leaned forward, pausing for a moment to give Aziraphale chance to move away before pressing a soft kiss to his cheek. Aziraphale gasped and his hand came up to rest on Crowley’s hip, squeezing gently.

Crowley swallowed thickly and pulled back, returning his attention to the food for the otters. He tugged a glove free from the box on the counter (because the keepers _did_ keep some things on the surface as a matter of fact) and quickly transferred an appropriate amount of mackerel and sardines into the container, along with one egg for each of the otters, holding it out towards Aziraphale.

“Thank you,” Aziraphale replied breathlessly, before rushing out of the door to do his talk.

Crowley closed the door behind him and leaned back against it with a huge grin on his face.

“Crawly! Azirascale! Guess what?” Crowley announced excitedly, heading over to the fridge to fetch the food for the residents of the reptile and amphibian house. “I _kissed_ him! I know, right? Where?” Crowley asked as if repeating a question that had been directed at him, twisting his head around to face the snakes’ enclosures, where they were both being pretty sedentary, just occasionally poking out their tongues. “In the otter kitchen. Oh, you mean _where_? On the cheek. He had to go and do the otter talk straight after but he let me walk him partway back to the office when he finished and I checked he was ok with it and he said he liked it. He said he _really_ liked it. Azirascale, don’t tell Anathema when she comes to get you for the close encounter, ok? This is our little secret. I’m going to properly ask him out tomorrow, just need to get him completely alone. Coils crossed for me!” Crowley laughed at his own joke, excited about the possibility of taking the next step with Aziraphale, as he started preparing the food.

** Friday **

Crowley met Aziraphale for lunch by the wildfowl pond, a shiver skittering down his spine in response to the way Aziraphale smiled at him as he approached their usual bench.

“Hey.”

“Hello, Crowley.”

“I was actually hoping we might go somewhere different today?”

“Oh. All right.”

“Great, just give me a minute.” Crowley unclipped his radio from his trousers and squeezed the button on the side. “Keeper three to keeper one.”

Tracy’s voice materialised over the radio in response. “Go ahead, Crowley.”

“Hey, has the straw been delivered yet?”

Crowley relaxed his grip on the radio and there was a short pause before the answer came through.

“Yes, you can help yourself, there’s two bales for you.”

“Thanks. Keeper three out.”

Crowley grinned and clipped his radio back into position. _Excellent_. Aziraphale looked at him quizzically.

“Right, will you come with me to the straw shed?”

“Oh, do you still need to work? We can have lunch later if you like?”

“This isn’t really work. Please come with me?”

“Yes, all right.”

Crowley smiled as Aziraphale got up from the bench to join him and swallowed down the lump in his throat. It would be fine. Aziraphale liked him.

“So, where exactly is the straw shed?” Aziraphale asked as they walked.

“Right round the back, behind the elephants.”

“Is the straw for the tortoises? Shouldn’t we be taking a vehicle?”

“Nah, don’t need it.”

“Is that why you asked me to come with you? You want me to help you carry it?”

“No, of course not, I wouldn’t ask you to do that! Come on, we can go through the elephant house and get out through the door at the back.”

Crowley led Aziraphale into the elephant house. All the elephants were outside, and their keeper, Adam, was busy hosing down and sweeping the interior of the enclosure.

“Hey, Crowley, are you ok?” Adam asked, leaning on his broom handle and looking at Crowley with sincere concern. Unsurprising, given he would have heard Crowley’s exchange with Tracy on the radio. Then Aziraphale appeared at Crowley’s side and Adam’s eyes widened, his eyebrows climbing up his forehead. “Right, never mind, you’re fine. Hi, Aziraphale.”

“Hello Adam,” Aziraphale said brightly. Crowley gestured for Aziraphale to walk ahead of him towards the door at the back, pointing his finger at Adam and giving him a threatening glare as soon as Aziraphale’s back was turned. Adam held up his hands in a gesture of surrender.

When they reached the straw shed, Crowley once again gestured for Aziraphale to go ahead of him, pausing at the door to take a deep breath before he closed it behind him, leaving them only with the streaky light filtering in through the small windows.

“Crowley?”

“Right, so… I… I don’t actually need straw. I just wanted us to be able to talk, you know, somewhere we knew no one would disturb us.”

“Oh… I see. What makes you so sure that no one will need to come and get straw?”

“They won’t. On the radio earlier… that was a code we use. When one of us is having a day of it or isn’t feeling well and needs a quiet moment, we come here and have a lie down on the straw. We even keep a pillow and a blanket in that bin over there. Tracy’s really good at looking after us. Two bales means she was confirming no one would need to come here for two hours.”

“I hope she doesn’t actually think there’s something wrong with you.”

“I’ll just tell her I had a headache, it’s fine.”

“Adam saw you come here with me.”

“Adam knows how to keep his mouth shut.” Crowley’s nerves escalated as he watched the way Aziraphale fidgeted with his hands, his eyes darting around the floor of the straw shed. “I just wanted to talk to you, and I thought you might be more comfortable if we were alone, but we can go somewhere else, if you want?”

“No… it’s nice to know we won’t be disturbed. What did you want to talk to me about?”

Crowley took a deep breath and shoved his hands as far as they would go into his pockets, nervously fiddling with his keys.

“I really like you. I mean, I really, _really_ like you. It’s been nice spending more time with you at work, but… I wanted to ask if you’d consider going out with me? Like, on a date?” Crowley grimaced at his own lack of eloquence.

“Oh… yes, I’d like that. It would be nice to see you outside of work.”

“Are you free tonight?” Crowley asked excitedly, mentally chiding himself for coming across too eager.

“I am, yes.”

“Would you like to come over to mine for dinner? I can prepare human food too,” Crowley joked. Aziraphale indulged him with a small chuckle.

“That sounds wonderful, thank you, Crowley. I’m sure it goes without saying, but… I really like you too. I have for a long time. I… I liked it when you kissed me yesterday,” Aziraphale murmured softly, his voice catching slightly.

Crowley stepped closer to Aziraphale, lowering his voice. “I liked it too.”

Crowley brushed Aziraphale’s curls away from his forehead with the back of his hand, and Aziraphale leaned into his touch, his eyes fluttering closed. Encouraged, Crowley moved his hand down to tenderly cradle Aziraphale’s jaw, closing the distance between them and pressing a soft kiss to his lips. Aziraphale sighed and parted his lips, resting his hand on Crowley’s nape to pull him closer, returning his kiss, and Crowley felt like he was tingling all over.

“Come and sit on the straw with me? You’re making my knees go weak,” Crowley chuckled.

“Are you trying to tempt me into a roll in the hay? Well… straw?”

“Aziraphale!” Crowley gaped, shocked and trying _very_ hard not to let his mind wander off in the direction it now wanted to. Aziraphale laughed, his eyes crinkling, and Crowley realised this was the most relaxed he’d ever seen him. Crowley couldn’t be sure whether that could be attributed to the assurance of privacy, or Crowley having actually been more direct with him about his feelings, but somehow it made him look even more attractive.

They sat side-by-side on one of the bales of straw, arms wrapped around each other, and Crowley leaned forward, brushing another kiss against Aziraphale’s lips. Aziraphale pulled him closer, letting himself fall back onto the straw and dragging Crowley down with him.

After taking the long way around to avoid seeing Adam, and parting ways with Aziraphale where the path split in front of the rainforest exhibit, Crowley headed back to the reptile and amphibian house, quickly letting himself into the backroom, grinning so much his face hurt.

“Crawly! Azirascale! You’ll never guess what just happened in the straw shed!”

**Author's Note:**

> Radio codes are common in visitor attractions because you don't know who might overhear you. ;-) The story with the blind child and the tortoises is based on something that happened to me - the little boy was so amazed and happy I'll never forget it, and the secret place for members of the team to lie down, with a blanket and pillow hidden away, that's from my own experience too. ;-) 
> 
> Thank you for reading and for your comments/kudos, I hope you enjoyed it! <3


End file.
